UFC’s November Event in Brazil is Premature

UFC will go to Brazil in due time. Dana White said that they might go to Brazil but not now. The November event is also not going to push through. The promotion is looking at 2011 to be the perfect time to build the octagon in the said country.

Good news cagefighting fans, UFC plans to go to Brazil as soon as possible. Though officials aren’t sure when will this happen it’s still a very possible. UFC’s President Dana White said that despite reports claiming that the UFC Brazil event is far from existence, plans are still on going.

“It’s too early to tell,” White said. “We’re obviously interested in Brazil and bringing a fight down there, but we don’t know yet.”

Despite the rough success of Brazilian fighters in UFC, the company had only one event in the Brazilian territory. That event was in 1998, “UFC 17.5: Ultimate Brazil,” which took place in Sao Paulo. It showed fans how Frank Shamrock defeated John Lober in the main event, while the co-headliner showed Vitor Belfort stopping Wanderlei Silva in just 44 seconds.

The UFC’s main troubles at that time were economic struggles of Brazil. White mentioned another trip to Brazil in 2009, but he said the process might be big.

“We’re spending money in Brazil right now,” White said. “We’re spending marketing money, PR money, and we’ve got people down there working for us.

“You get into these countries, and you have to go in there and cultivate the market. Look at how long we’ve been in the U.K. and how much money and effort and energy we’ve put into there, and we’re not on pay-per-view yet. It’s driving us crazy, but people don’t realize how much work we put into this thing – not only here in the U.S. and all the things we do here but all over the world. It’s a big job.

“It looks like 2011,” UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta said in October. “We’ve been working on that now for about a year. We’re trying to figure our whether we do it in Rio (de Janeiro) or Sao Paulo.

“Obviously, the market there is huge for the UFC. It’s been very popular over the past couple of years, and I think we’ll do pretty well there.”